Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat down with CBS’s Margaret Brennan for an interview on Sunday after a hectic vacation plan. He was confronted with foolish questions about how completely speech “irritates our friends” and how the Nazis used it to carry out murder. Instead of being forced to watch him tell this poor girl the fundamentals of history, we all learned nothing.  ,
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But on Thursday, Rubio sat down for another appointment, this time with one a bit more knowledgeable. Prior to joining CBS, Catherine Herridge spent a number of years working for Fox New. The Emmy win is currently a freelance journalist who mostly works from her app on X and social media. Her profile states that her goal is “telling the stories I could hardly tell before, where the information have an all-new power.”  ,
When I saw that she was releasing a “full and uncensored” interview with Rubio, I knew I had to tune in. I’ve always been a fan of Herridge’s monitoring, so I wanted to know what he had to say when he was being pressed for specific, significant questions. I also believe it is amazing that one of the world’s most powerful men sat down for a big discussion with a blogger who would publish it on a social media platform. Consider that, conventional advertising.  ,
The separate media’s coming appears promising.
Bless you @X! https ://t.co/HUh95I7WrR
— Catherine Herridge (@C__ Herridge ) February 21, 2025
As a matter of fact, at the end of the 42-minute discussion, Herridge brought that up. Will you let independent journalists use the State Department presentation area? she asked, adding,”… you could have given this interview to any reporter, any major corporate outlet, but you chose an independent journalist who posts. .” . ,
Rubio finished her paragraph in” On X” by stressing the value of being able to “go where the citizens are.”
And so we must talk with others. We need to be able to… This is their State Department. It’s certainly my State Department. I’ll work around for a while before my job is done, and I’ll return as a private citizen. But this will always be their State Department. They deserve to hear from us because we make choices every time. Where are people getting their news and information? That’s where we need to be delivering our news and information.  ,
I only went abroad. We had a number of people from various conventional media on our journey, and we’re not going to remove them. However, we need to be able to talk with them and let them know where they are getting their news and information. We can’t help our message to only be delivered through the lens of traditional media outlets, whose… I’m never trying to be mean below, but their readership is over, their popularity is over, their ratings are over.  ,
We must deliver our information wherever people are getting their news and information and in these type of long-form interviews where they are receiving major calls and can provide complex answers, not the flimsy audio bites that are broadcast on cable news for leisure purposes. But we’ll join everyone, but we almost certainly see a greater emphasis on separate news, because that’s where people are getting their news and information.
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Connected:  , WATCH: Poor Rubio Is Forced to Teach Margaret Brennan Basic Record
I can’t stress enough how great it is that this management is so open and accessible. We used to go days without seeing Joe Biden, and now it’s unusual to get days without seeing Donald Trump.  ,
Regardless, the two hit all the major international policy subjects: Russia, Ukraine, China, Hamas, atomic Iran, USAID, cartel, international gangs, and even the roots of COVID-19. About an hour and a half after Herridge posted the discussion, I’m writing this article. I’m convinced others will get the interview off and go over some of these subjects more in-depth on Friday, including some of my coworkers at PJ Media, but these are some of the highlights that stood out to me.
Rubio criticized Hamas, calling them “vile” and saying that Hamas will always find peace in Gaza as long as they continue to exist. He stated that many of our Middle Eastern partners do not like Trump’s ideas for the area, and that the United States will assist them in doing so. They have been instructed to come up with a better one.  ,
He once more refuted the democratic maxim that stopping foreign aid would mean there would be no more humanitarian assistance. ” We also issued a blanket exemption for emergency humanitarian aid, food, healthcare, cover, things where there’s a problems somewhere in the world”, he told Herridge, adding that countries can also apply for waivers for courses they feel are important or if they fit with the interests of the United States. So far, 250 have been approved. Rubio provided a real-world illustration of a waiver for a training program in Guatemala that teaches authorities how to recognize and detach fentanyl before it gets to drug dealers. ” An America First State Department is not an America only State Department”, he said.  ,
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Herridge questioned Russia, saying,” You told reporters in Saudi Arabia that there hasn’t been regular contact with the Russians in three and a half years. Under the Biden White House, how much ground was lost?  ,
Rubio’s response? There was no point in losing. Communication is a must, he said, and regardless of whether you like Putin or Putin, he said he wasn’t a fan.
 ,… even at the height of the Cold War, even in the worst days of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had communication. And that’s why I don’t like most of Vladimir Putin’s actions if I want to be mature and mature about it. And that’s largely unimportant when it comes to statecraft, because we ultimately need to talk to a country that has the largest, if not the largest, strategic nuclear weapons stockpile in the world and, in some cases, the largest, if not the largest, stockpile.  ,
Rubio claimed that Trump is the only global leader capable of bringing peace to the Ukrainen situation. While he wouldn’t say much about Iran, he did say the there will “never be a nuclear Iran” but that Trump is a “peacemaker”. He added that it is beyond time for the Chinese to be fair that we won’t live in a world where we rely on China. What we are permitted to do there is what they ought to be allowed to do here. What we should be charging them is what they charge us on tariffs. And that’s what the President’s bringing, not just to China, but to the world is reciprocity and fairness”, he said.  ,  ,
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He even provided some insider information on how the concept of” Canada as the 51st state” came about. During a meeting with Trump, Justin Trudeau claimed that if our trade balance was maintained, Canada would not exist. ” Well, if you can’t exist without cheating and trade, then you should become a state”, was Trump’s response. Fair point.  ,
Fairness and balance are obviously major themes for this Trump 2.0 administration’s foreign policy. Rubio remarked that while America is at the top, we must collaborate with other nations because it serves our best interest. We simply want them to contribute their fair share, whatever it may be, on a case-by-case basis.  ,
You can watch the entire interview on Herridge’s X account here:
EXCLUSIVE: Our full, unedited interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ( @SecRubio ) on his first 30 days leading the Department.
Restarting U. S. /Russia relations following the Biden Administration, direct engagement with Ukraine, U. S. proposal for Gaza, preventing Iranian… pic. twitter.com/cxkHmNZWw0
— Catherine Herridge (@C__ Herridge ) February 21, 2025
